The invention relates to printing machines and more particularly to machines for printing such documents as rectangular sales slips.
Prior conventional printing apparatuses for sales slips, which have been generally incorporated in cash registers or points of sale terminals, have generally been of the vertical slot type or flat bed type. In the vertical slot type, the document must be inserted in the side or top of the machine, an operation that is relatively inconvenient and awkward for an operator to perform. If small sales slips or other articles accidentally drop to the bottom of the slot, they are not retrievable by the operator, causing substantial trouble. Pressure rollers are provided for incrementing the document in its printing slot, and these generally must be lifted either by a magnet or manually to insert the document. Generally also, there is a limitation on paper size with the vertical slot type of printing apparatus.
With the flat bed type of printing apparatus, printing is sometimes reversed as the sales slip exits the machine and must be turned upside down to be read. The number of lines of print are generally limited with this type of printing apparatus, and the lines of print are not visible to the operator substantially at the same time as they are printed so that errors are not readily apparent.